1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to secure communication for a wireless protocol, and more specifically, to the propagation of encryption information to devices communicating over a wireless protocol suitable for low complexity and/or power constrained wireless devices.
2. Background
The ability to communicate wirelessly is emerging as a feature included in many devices where communication was previously not contemplated. This expansion may be due to technological development in the area of multifunction wireless communication devices (WCD). Consumers may now replace common standalone productivity devices like computers, laptops, facsimile machines, personal digital assistants, etc. with a single device capable of performing all of these functions. These multifunction devices may help people complete tasks during time that was previously wasted (commutes to and from work, school, back home, etc.)
A multifunction device empowered with the aforementioned beneficial features may also be limited by small size and power constraints. For example, operator interfaces installed in these devices are often small, and not conducive to high throughput typing. As a result, users may rely on peripheral input devices such as keyboards, mice, headsets, etc. Since many of these peripheral devices are also wirelessly coupled, a WCD must not only support wireless communication with at least one peripheral device, it must also be able to support multiple simultaneous wireless connections to peripheral devices being operated concurrently.
These peripheral devices may now also include “intelligent” mechanisms enabled for wireless communication. For example, it may be desirable to wirelessly link two or more low-power devices in a beneficial relationship, such as linking a wristwatch including health-monitoring intelligence to various wireless sensors placed proximate to a user's body. Simpler communication protocols with lower power requirements are now being developed so that even devices that have not historically been able to communication wirelessly may now provide information to, and in some cases receive wireless information from, a WCD. These devices often run on battery power, and as a result, must rely on simple, power efficient communications in order to be functional. Many existing wireless communication protocols are either too simple or too complex to support these devices. For example, radio frequency (RF) communication is efficient and may be receive power from a scanning device, however, currently available RF transponder chips are space-limited and usually only provide previously stored information. In the case of IEEE 802.11x WLAN (or “WiFi”), the substantial power requirements may not make it appropriate for small device installations. Even Bluetooth™, a standard that was originally designed to replace wires with a wireless medium for simple peripheral input devices, may not be the best solution for new devices with very limited power, interface and processing abilities.
Further, the limitations of these exemplary wireless protocols, when being applied to low complexity and/or power constrained wireless devices, becomes especially evident when trying to establish a link security strategy. Current security theories may often be too complex for simple devices in terms of required processing power and interface availability. These devices, such as remote wireless sensors, often have minimal onboard processing capabilities limited to information collection and transmission, limited overhead available for additional hardware integrated security solutions, and minimal user interface options provided for allowing a user, for example, to turn on a device and recognize it is operating through an LED, etc.